Brooks sentenced for freeway chase

Friday

Jul 25, 2014 at 10:01 AMJul 25, 2014 at 3:20 PM

Staff Reporter

VICTORVILLE — A former Nevada Assemblyman who led Barstow Police and California Highway Patrol officers on a high-speed chase last year was sentenced at the Victorville courthouse on Friday and may soon be extradited to Nevada to face charges there.Steven Brooks, 42, pleaded no contest in March to evading a peace officer and resisting arrest. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped additional charges alleging that he threw an object out of his SUV and attacked a Barstow Police dog. He was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison on Friday, but he will not serve any more significant jail time in California. Brooks has already served 485 days in San Bernardino and Rancho Cucamonga jails, and with an additional 485 days of conduct credits, his sentence has been served in full. However, Deputy District Attorney Shannon Faherty said Brooks has two “extraditable holds” for charges in Nevada, so he will “get on the bus” back to jail and wait for his likely extradition.Brooks, who was ousted from the Assembly because his colleagues felt unsafe around him, faces active charges for two arrests in Nevada last year. In one of the cases, Brooks is accused of attempting to punch and grab a gun from a police officer who was called to a domestic dispute between Brooks and his estranged wife in February 2013. He was indicted a month earlier for threatening Nevada Assembly Speaker-elect Marilyn Kirkpatrick, a fellow Democrat.“I can’t speak to those charges,” Faherty said, “but generally if there were holds, he would be extradited.”On March 28, 2013, the same day he was expelled from the Nevada Assembly, Brooks led authorities down Interstate 15 from Barstow to the northern edge of Victorville, where Barstow Police and CHP officers arrested him after a scuffle on the freeway shoulder.Faherty said the sentence is “about on par with what he would have received after trial, because he doesn’t have a prior record. I think it acknowledges the fact that he put peace officers in danger.”She also noted that Brooks will be prohibited from possessing a firearm or ammunition. He also had his driver’s license revoked, she said.The chase started near the Lenwood offramp of the I-15, where Brooks blew out a tire on his SUV and requested the services of a tow truck driver. Barstow Police were called to the scene after Brooks argued with the driver and refused to pay for his services. The driver told officers Brooks was acting “irrational and weird,” according to a San Bernardino County Probation officer’s report on the case. Brooks got into his vehicle and sped away, ignoring officers’ commands to stop and inciting a 23-mile freeway chase. Brooks’ SUV often exceeded 80 mph, with sparks and metal flying from its mangled right front wheel.The report states that Brooks also threw tools and other metal objects out the window of the vehicle, repeatedly leaning out the window to extend his middle finger at officers.The vehicle finally came to a stop near Stoddard Wells Road, disabled by a CHP spike strip. Officers shot out the rear window of the SUV with a bean bag gun. After Brooks exited the SUV and went back inside, the Barstow Police dog “Buck” was released into the vehicle. Officers say they saw Brooks strike Buck several times with a socket wrench and attempt to strangle the dog.Officers then pulled Brooks from the vehicle and fired a stun gun at him as he continued to struggle with the dog. The report states that one officer punched Brooks twice to disengage him from the dog, then Brooks was arrested.Faherty said Friday that Buck “is doing well and is back in action.” Brooks and one of the officers suffered minor injuries. Brooks later told officers that he was sorry for the incident, adding that “he had been under a lot of stress, and the police in Las Vegas had constantly harassed him, and beat him,” the report states. He also told an officer that he had considered crashing his vehicle and killing himself and that he had also contemplated pulling into the path of officers so they would shoot him.The probation report states that Brooks became angry and tearful after he was ousted from the Assembly and “made a comment about committing suicide, stating he had no other recourse.”According to the report, Brooks said he was diagnosed as bipolar in February 2013 and had been taking medication while in jail.Brooks’ behavior at Friday’s hearing was subdued and “straightforward,” Faherty said.“He answered the judge (John Tomberlin) ‘yes sir,’ ” Faherty said. “He was pretty reserved.”After serving any possible sentence in Nevada, Brooks will be required to report to the parole board in California and begin serving a three-to-four-year parole term. He was also ordered to pay $5,625 in restitution, investigation and court fees, and he will be required to pay another $5,000 fine if he violates his parole, Faherty said.